Longtime adversaries Russia and China launched their first-ever joint wargames yesterday in a show of military might they insisted was not aimed at any other country after the US expressed concern.
Washington, which has indicated unease over the pace of China's military build-up, is not attending as an observer but said it is closely monitoring the drills, warning they should not undermine regional stability.
The week-long exercises involving 10,000 troops, naval ships, bombers and fighter planes began in the Russian city of Vladivostok and will later move to the Yellow Sea and the area off the Jiaodong peninsula in eastern China.
Chinese defense officials said they would focus on the ability of Russian and Chinese forces to fight separatism and terrorism, while strengthening mutual trust between two of the world's major powers.
"The exercise will be carried out in the framework of the fight against international terrorism and extremism, to respond to new threats and challenges," said Liang Guanglie (
China faces challenges from separatists in its Muslim-populated Xinjiang region in the northwest, and Russia from Muslim separatists in Chechnya.
"This first joint military exercise in [our] history ... does not threaten the interests of other countries," Russian chief-of-staff Yury Baluyevsky said.
Under the scenario of the exercises, a fictive state torn by massive ethnic unrest has asked the UN and neighboring countries to assist in restoring order, Russian officials said.
Chinese and Russian troops under UN mandate are sent to separate the combatants and quell the unrest.
Defense ministers from countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which groups several Central Asian countries besides China and Russia, have been invited to watch, China's Xinhua news agency said.
Leading military officials from Iran, India and Pakistan are also on hand, the state-run agency quoted Russian diplomats as saying.
The thrust of the drills, known as "Peace Mission 2005," would be battle planning, transportation and deployment of troops and combat practice, it added.
Earlier Chinese reports said they will involve Russian paratroopers jumping onto the Chinese peninsula, while Russian ships will engage in amphibious exercises.
Air force exercises involving Sukhoi Su-27 fighter planes and Tupolev TU 95MSs and TU 22M-3s will round out the drills, with long-distance bombing runs and cruise missile attacks, reports said.
The exercises could also involve China's nuclear submarine fleet and anti-submarine warfare capability.
As the drills got under way, a group of Russian journalists were allowed for the first time aboard a Chinese warship, Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
The US is closely watching what goes on.
"We are following the exercises," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said this week. "We expect that they will be conducted in a manner that supports some mutual goal of regional stability shared by the United States, China and Russia."
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs voiced a high degree of concern yesterday over an ongoing China-Russia joint military exercise and urged China to withdraw its 700-odd missiles aimed at Taiwan.
Peace and security in the Taiwan Strait is of extremely vital importance to the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the world, and no country in the region is allowed to do anything that threatens regional peace and stability, foreign ministry spokesman Michel Lu (
RSS